This past Thursday, President Obama discussed marijuana legalization in a YouTube video and stated that he expects more states to allow its recreational use. According to the Washington Post, marijuana is legal in Colorado and Washington, and is currently regulated differently state by state.

However, it seems Obama predicts more states will follow Colorado and Washington's lead, and soon. He stated, "The position of my administration has been that we still have federal laws that classify marijuana as an illegal substance, but we're not going to spend a lot of resources trying to turn back decisions that have been made at the state level on this issue. My suspicion is that you're gonna see other states start looking at this."

Obama went on to discuss how the use of marijuana should be treated as a public health problem rather than a criminal problem. He said, "What we have done is instead of focusing on treatment, the same way we focused say with tobacco or drunk driving or other problems where we treat it as a public health problem, we've treated this exclusively as a criminal problem...

And I think that it's been counterproductive and it's been devastating in a lot of minority communities. It presents the possibility at least of unequal application of the law and that has to be changed."

Furthermore, arresting people on charges of marijuana possession can take a considerable amount of time and money. According to Think Progress, in Washington, D.C. "the District has a higher per capita arrest rate, greater racial disparity in marijuana possession arrests, and spends more money in marijuana enforcement than almost any other state or county in the country."

However, marijuana legalization does face one particularly large hurdle: Congress. Think progress reports that a congressional review period expires on February 26, before which legislators on the Hill can pass a resolution of disapproval.

What are your thoughts on marijuana legalization?